Ag Mag February 2020

AG Mag Central Iowa

A Farming Legacy How a daughter was left to pick up the pieces and finish harvest after her father’s death.

What does the late harvest mean for spring planting: Iowa farmers look to start fresh, but with what lingering issues.

Iowa royalty: Holdeman enjoys new title of Iowa Miss Agriculture Advocacy Ambassador.

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PUBLICATION • SPRING 2020

AG Mag

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P.O. Box 967 Newton, IA 50208 CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED PRSRT STD U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 440 Sterling, IL 61081

Index

AG Mag Advertising Director Kevin Brown Managing Editor Pam Pratt

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Publisher Rich Paulsen

COVERSTORY

Magazine Editor & Page Design Pam Pratt and Jamee A. Pierson Reporters & Photographers Christopher Braunschweig, Dustin Teays and Jamee A. Pierson

Published by News Publishing Co. 200 First Ave. East Newton, IA 50208 641-792-3121

FROM TRAGEDY SPROUTS TRIUMP

After her father’s death, a Kellogg farmer’s daughter is left to pick up the pieces and finish harvest

Articles and advertisements are the property of News Printing Co. No portion of the Central Iowa Ag Mag may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Ad content is not the responsibility of News Publishing Co. The information in this magazine is believed to be accurate; however, News Printing Co. cannot and does not guarantee its accuracy. News Printing Co. cannot and will not be held liable for the quality or performance of goods and services provided by advertisers listed in any portion of this magazine.

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FROM HARVEST TO PLANTING Late harvest could have potential effects on Jasper County planting season

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Dustin Teays/Ag Mag Eric Siebrecht, a Monroe farmer who has felt the effects of the behind schedule harvesting season as farmers now move into preparations for planting season.

Late harvest could have potential effects on Jasper County planting season

BY DUSTIN TEAYS Central Iowa Ag Mag

The 2019 harvest season brought with it many challenges, including lasting much longer than anticipated.

Farmers across Iowa are now dealing with challenges in spring planting due to the delays last fall.

Eric Siebrecht, a Monroe farmer who works roughly 2,000 acres, knows all too well about the weather that kept him and other farmers an average of two weeks behind last year. Even though farmers got through the tough harvest they may still be behind moving into planting season.

“Harvest was no fun ... Usually we are probably done around Halloween and this year we were mid-November,’” Siebrecht said.

The problems didn’t start during harvest season but months earlier with a wet spring delaying planting season. The added moisture not only kept farmers out of the field, but also affected the early growth of crops, trigger additional delays.

We are kind of in this cycle of be4 Spring 2020

ing behind on our fall fieldwork which then puts us behind on our spring fieldwork,” Iowa State Extension and Outreach Field Agronomist Meaghan Anderson said.

The conditions that had harvest being completed later than usual led to work needing to get done to prepare fields for planting being pushed, as well, Siebrecht said, which has the potential for affecting planting season. He has taken advantage of some weather breaks that came along this winter.

“Around Christmas I was putting anhydrous on just because the weather turned fit right there. There was a short little window around Christmas. Other than I would say in this area there is a lot of fieldwork to be done,” Siebrecht said.

Work in the field is completed following harvest to prepare for the next year, Siebrecht said. With the late harvest and snow flying not long after, many necessary tasks could not be done at the usual time before spring.

“Guys will have to get some of that fieldwork done,” Siebrecht said.

While last year brought with it difficult conditions for farmers that really pushed their schedules, Siebrecht said that if Mother Nature can cooperate with them and bring nice weather, farmers should be able to get themselves on schedule.

“If it stays decent and no snow and it warms up then I’m not necessarily as worried about it,” Siebrecht said.

Like many farmers, Siebrecht is playing catch up with his fieldwork, which is made all the more difficult when also competing with duties including calving.

“I mean you got to take care of that other stuff,” Siebrecht said.

While there is still waves of snow coming in, Siebrecht hopes farmers come spring enough good weather will give farmers time to get their field work done and plant crops in a more regular time line. “At least we get some nice weather and get out crop in a timely manner, it doesn’t get too wet. Because that hurt our yield last year was the real wet planting conditions we had. We got all that rain and we lost our nitrogen,”

Siebrecht said.

Of course, nobody know what the weather will be in the coming months, but Anderson said if there is a repeat

of last year’s condition, it is very likely the season will be delayed again.

“We are not ahead of the game right now,” Anderson

said. “It is kind of setting ourselves up for a tough spring but I will also say that farmers are extremely resilient and the equipment that we have now-

adays as well as the wherewithal that farmers have to be able to get things done in a timely manner is really, really impressive.”

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From tragedy sprouts triumph After her father’s death, a Kellogg farmer’s daughter is left to pick up the pieces and finish harvest

BY CHRISTOPHER BRAUNSCHWEIG Central Iowa Ag Mag

Christy Lester was never allowed to drive the tractor nor the combine on her family farm, even when she scheduled days off to help her father with harvest.

“Why won’t you let me help you?” she would ask.

The seasoned farmer always resisted.

“Oh, no, I don’t need it,” David William “Bill” Hotger would gently tell his only child.

Still, Lester would persist and continued to take time off from work. Every year she and her husband, Mike, would 6 Spring 2020

drive south from the Twin Cities to her hometown of Kellogg, a rural farming community of less than 600 people. Together, they tried desperately to convince Hotger he could use some help.

Eventually, he would allow his daughter and son-in-law to carry out “small” chores like unloading wagons and operating the auger to distribute grain into bins. Fieldwork was strictly for dad and longtime farmhand Paul Weyers. Lester, again, would push to do more, to alleviate the burden.

Lester had even suggested to visit them outside of harvest and learn some

of the less glamorous parts of the job, like the purchases of chemicals and seeds. He seemed up to it at the time and told her he would call her when it needed to be done. Before she knew it, Hotger had already bought his supplies.

Other times, Hotger bobbed and weaved around questions. Stubborn as ever.

“I’ll have to teach you how to run the tractor sometime, but I can’t do it now,” he would say. Maybe this last year would have been different. Maybe Hotger wanted to coach his daughter about how to properly operate his fleet of farm

equipment. Maybe he would finally relent. Maybe not.

This past harvest season, Hotger had no choice but to let someone else drive the tractor, harvest the grain and drive the heavy loads to a co-op. On June 13, 2019, Weyers found the 78-year-old, his friend and mentor, laying facedown and unresponsive in a low-filled grain bin on his family farm.

Efforts to resuscitate Hotger were unsuccessful. Lester and her family were devastated. But as the grief began to settle, and the Lesters moved to Jasper County, they soon realized there was more than 800 acres of planted corn and soybeans left to harvest. Any plans to sell the land were tossed aside. That’s not what Hotger wanted, Lester said.

Weyers, who is from Killduff, would lead the charge and take care of most of the combine work, which must have been a shock since nobody was allowed to touch the machine except Hotger.

Other area farmers pitched in to teach Weyers how to operate the equipment.

Of course, that meant Lester was on tractor duty. She had never really driven one before, let alone haul grain.

Lester was taught the farming ropes

by Weyers, who has worked with the Hotger family for more than 25 years.

The late Hotger taught Weyers everything he knows. Lester remembered how shy and reserved he was when he first started working for her dad. Over time, Weyers began to open up and soon became another member of the family.

“The more he hung out with my dad, the more he became like my dad,” Lester said. “Even towards the end if you saw pictures of my dad and saw pictures of Paul, they even almost look like one another.”

Indeed, the two share a sharp nose, long ears and a weathered complexion.

Behind that noticeable farmer’s tan, a pair of glasses and a ball cap, Weyers and Hotger are practically identical; wouldn’t be surprised if they have the same gait of a farmer who has hoisted himself up and down the steep ladder of a combine hundreds — if not, thousands — of times.

Lester and her husband took their new roles as farmers head on; while Weyers was harvesting the fields, the couple hauled away grain. Lester and Weyers made quite the team, harvesting late into the night on several occasions and making good time despite some unideal weather conditions.

“Paul showed us how to do things we have never done before,” she said.

“We hauled to the elevator. Hauled and dumped it in the dryer bins. We did everything. And it was definitely learning on the fly … We were kicking butt.”

For them, harvest began in early October. All the soybeans had been harvested in a matter of weeks. By early November, the team was finished by corn. Lester was impressed with their progress. She felt the weight lift off her shoulders. The last bit of work her father left behind was now completed.

Some time after her dad died, Lester remembered asking her mother, Linda, why he never let her help, despite several attempts and many years’ worth of trips planned expressly to assist him. It never made sense to her.

Her mother said, “Your dad never wanted you to have that life, because he never wanted you to know the hard work it took and the horrible hours. He wanted you to have a normal life.”

Lester, who has worked in hospitals and care centers most of her life, had to laugh. There might not be any such thing as a “normal life” in the health care business. Before she was married, Lester worked in cardiology and the ICU. She used to wake up at 2 a.m. to call and check on patients. She worked overnights and filed admissions.

Looking back, she still respects his decision to keep her away from that world. Despite what he may have thought otherwise, Lester knew how many hours he had invested into the farm, and how, sometimes, the return on that investment was not as strong as he would have liked.

But she also knew how much he loved farming. It had been his family’s profession for decades. After working in the fields for more than a month, Lester now knows where that love comes from.

Sometimes when she’s inside the driver’s cab of the tractor she thinks about her dad.

He spent years trying to dissuade her from farming. What would he think of all this? What would he make of his daughter not only helping in the process but becoming an integral part of the operation in very little time? What would he think of her driving the tractor so confidently working alongside Weyers?

“I think he would be pretty damn proud,” Lester said. “I don’t know that he knew his daughter had it in her to do all that stuff.”

AG Mag

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Tiny farm is larger than life

Miniature display maker uses farming toys to capture a familiar and authentic scene

BY CHRISTOPHER BRAUNSCHWEIG Central Iowa Ag Mag

From a bird’s-eye view it looks like any other farm.

Upon closer inspection, it still looks like any other farm.

Only after folks look at the display from afar inside Dalton’s Farm Toys do they realize the farming operation is made almost entirely from figurines one could find inside the Newton-based business where it currently re-

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side. Tractors, combines and other farming equipment fill the display’s shop house and machine shed. There’s even overgrowth behind some of the buildings.

Up close, those towering grain bins look as shiny and weathered as the real things, but in actuality they are all made entirely of plastic. Jason Dalton, owner of Dalton’s Farm Toys, held a toy bin next to its display counterpart for comparison. The differences were

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staggering. The display’s paint job, on-the-nose accessories and attention to detail make the scene all the more accurate.

“It’s spot-on,” Dalton said. “All the roofs come off and we even have a guy welding with a welder on the actual (farming equipment). You can see all the little shop tools. If you look through the doors you can see in there and what’s going on. To me, it’s like looking in a real shop.”

Although Jason and Melissa Dalton did not necessarily have enough room to fit the display, the couple went out of their way to make room for what is essentially going to be preserved as a work of art in the toy shop. The display arrived to the shop before Christmas 2019 and has already garnered several comments from customers, who have admired the true-to-life details.

“It’s not like you can go out and buy this,” Dalton said inside the 924 E. Eighth St. N. shop, which has been a hub for farm toys for many years.

“He hand-puts all these little bars on here and all these vents. All of those are 3D printed together and painted … Everybody loves it.”

Who is this he? A Janesville, Wisc., man by the name of Andy O’Leary. He and the Daltons met through farm toy conventions a few

years ago. O’Leary eventually was introduced to the art of miniature display making from seeing other scenes exhibited at toy shows.

Driving around the country and looking at farms was enough inspiration to push him forward into that world. Even though O’Leary doesn’t own a farm, he has certainly been exposed to it throughout his life — he helped his uncle on a dairy farm for six years and regularly assists a friend with 2,000 acres of crop.

That kind of experience no doubt bolsters the authenticity of O’Leary’s work. Most of the displays he creates are 1/64 scale. Technological advances in 3D printing have helped display artists manufacture more accurate replicas, too.

The farming toys O’Leary adds to the displays are a continuation of a pastime he originally loved as a child. Instead of G.I. Joe figures, the young O’Leary always asked for tractors and other farm toys for his birthday and Christmas. Now, the toys serve a much different purpose.

Even his kids have taken a liking to it.

“I enjoy it a lot,” he said. “I have three children … and now my 7-yearold is getting into it a lot. We’re actually in the process of building her a display for a local show here in the

next couple of weeks.”

Popularity of miniature displays have seen a huge increase in the farm toy world, Dalton said. Both adults and kids are making displays on the regular for shows or competitions.

Builders spend considerable hours constructing these displays. O’Leary estimated 200 or more hours were devoted to the project.

“You paint (the base) first and then you lay the real dirt down, then you gotta lay gravel down, then you gotta lay grass down where you want it,” O’Leary said. “Some of the buildings I buy, some I make myself. So that can get time consuming. It all adds up pretty quick.”

Most of the work is done from home. The display at Dalton’s Farm Toys was O’Leary’s first commission project. Social media buzz grabbed the attention of other buyers who have now requested their own displays as well. A lot of what O’Leary makes is directly put back into his hobby — or, rather, his passion.

“My biggest enjoyment is having people talk about it,” he said. “It’s nice you take it to a show and win a trophy, but if when people are talking about it and saying, ‘Ah, man! That looks really good!’ or ‘That looks spot on!’ — that’s what I enjoy … that’s the pleasure I get out of it.”

AG Mag

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Miss Iowa Ag Jasper County resident vying for national agriculture royalty in 2020

BY DUSTIN TEAYS Central Iowa Ag Mag

Receiving the title of Iowa Miss Agriculture Advocacy Ambassador was just another step for a Jasper County resident who has a long history in the agriculture world.

Codi Holdeman grew up in Reasnor on her family’s farm that includes raising sheep. Naturally, as Holdeman got older she became involved with activities such as FFA and 4-H to continue her interest in agriculture.

“We farm together as a family which makes it a lot of fun. I was born into it,” Holdeman said. “It was kind of just our daily routine.”

These activities led Holdeman to be interested in the pageantry side of agriculture.

This began by being named the Jasper County Fair Sheep Queen in 2016. In 2017, Holdeman gained another accolade as she was 10 Spring 2020

crowned the Jasper County Fair Princess.

“That was really cool to be able to represent on a different level which was a lot of fun,” Holdeman said.

After being the princess, Holdeman decided to register to be the 2019 Jasper County representative for Iowa Miss United States Agriculture. It was the first year for the competition to include Jasper County. Holdeman said since the program was a fresh addition to the local agriculture world, titles were given on a first come first-serve basis for this title.

“The program is so new to Iowa that there are not county contests for positions,” Holdeman said. “But that is something that is definitely in the works for maybe next year.”

Iowa Miss Agriculture recently held its first state pageant and Holdeman was there competing for a title. This time, she was honored with the title of Iowa Miss Agriculture Advocacy Ambassador, which she will hold until November 2020. “(It) was based off of how active I was during my county queen reign, just in the community and doing different things and volunteering,” Holdeman said.

When speaking of the activities she completed during her time as the county princess she mentioned fondly how she implemented the recent Friendship Livestock Show. The

addition to the 2019 Jasper County Fair allowed those with special needs to have the opportunity to be involved with fair activities. Holdeman planned the show in a few short weeks and included eight participants.

“That was the biggest thing I did,” Holdeman said.

With her new title of Iowa Miss Agriculture Advocacy Ambassador, it means Holdeman will go out into the community to advocate for involvement in agriculture on all levels and ages across all genders. She will also advocate for involvement in this new program.

“Right now what I am hitting the most on is the 2020 county queen registry is open so right now it is a lot of advocating to get people to get those titles and to be involved,” Holdeman said.

This isn’t where Holdeman’s journey stops, as she holds this title she said she will continue to advocate for involvement in agriculture but also come next year she will be competing for a national title in Orlando, Fla. in June 2020.

“There I will be eligible to compete for National Miss United States Agriculture which is the top title,” Holdeman said.

But it’s not just the top title Holdeman will be considered for. She will also have the chance to be named National Miss Agricul-

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ture Advocacy Ambassador which is based off of involvement throughout the year, whereas National Miss United States Agriculture is based off of competition results.

“I would probably be speechless like I am right now just thinking about it to be honest,” Holdeman said about if she won a title at the national competition.

Holdeman is currently enrolled at DMACC studying human services and while she has a platform for advocacy for agriculture, she also said she will keep her personal platform to continue to advocate as well.

“I still have my personal platform which is still advocating for individuals with disabilities to become more involved. This next year for the Jasper County Fair in the summer we are still doing the Friendship Show,” Holdeman said. “Sounds like everyone is excited for that.”

Agriculture has clearly played an important role throughout Holdeman’s life as she looks forward to the national competition to compete for a national title all the while still advocating for agriculture involvement and those things she holds close on a personal level to advocate for.

“If you think about it you can barely do anything without agriculture on a daily basis.

(You) got to appreciate it,” Holdeman said.

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